


Resitance

by potentiality_26



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Multi, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-Canon, Pre-OT3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 09:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11666550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potentiality_26/pseuds/potentiality_26
Summary: Merlin considered asking for help, but judging from the amused look on Harry’s face he wouldn’t give it.  Anyway, what would Merlin say?Tell your boyfriend to unhand me?It was unlikely to work, since Harry had been trying to bring Merlin around on the subject of physical affection for years. He hadn’t had much success, because Merlin was sure that however close Harry got physically he would still be far away in every sense that mattered.Merlin needs to rest after a mission.  Harry and Eggsy... involve themselves.





	Resitance

**Author's Note:**

> For the tumblr prompt: reluctant cuddle.
> 
> Not Brit-picked.

It was one of the reasons Merlin didn’t like going out into the field.  He was fine while he was out there, while there was always a next thing to do- but coming back was never as simple as making his report and getting on with life.  Today it was even worse than usual, because medical had confined him to his bed and private room for a day- a day he didn’t feel he could afford.  He needed to get back to work on all the projects that had undoubtedly been set back three weeks by his three days of absence.  He didn’t need _this_.  

There was a light knock on his door as he sat stewing.  Merlin expected it to be Harry, though he should still have been the next room over, having an examination that would hopefully not result in a similar confinement or everyone in the medical branch would live to regret it.  

But when Merlin called out, it was Eggsy who poked his head into the room.  

For a fraction of a second, Merlin panicked.  “How’s Harry?” he asked, keeping his voice even with an effort. It should have been Harry Eggsy looked in on, not him- so what if Harry had actually been hurt, and he hadn’t realized?  What if-

“He’s fine,” Eggsy said, waving him off.  “I wanted to check in on you.”  He leaned his shoulder against the doorway, hands in his pockets.  Merlin could tell he was meant to be at home because he wore his flashy civilian clothes- but he had stayed to see how Harry was.  How they both were, apparently.  “Not used to having to worry about both of you.”

It wasn’t really a surprise that Eggsy worried, only that he admitted it.  Merlin worried all the time, about Eggsy and Harry in particular, but he never said so aloud.  “I’m fine too.”

Eggsy’s eyebrows lifted.  “That right?”  He crossed to Merlin’s bed.  “Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen you keep still this long before.”

Merlin didn’t reply to that; he just snorted.  

Eggsy relented a little.  He had a bag over his shoulder, and he set it down in the chair next to Merlin’s bed.  From it he produced a tablet.  “Thought you might want this,” he said, perching on the edge of Merlin’s bed and waving it.

“Bless you,” Merlin said, reaching out.  

“Uh-uh,” Eggsy said, lifting the tablet into the air above Merlin’s head- something he would never have managed had Merlin been feeling even fractionally better than he did.  “I’m allowed to let you look anything you want on it.  No touching, though.”

Merlin considered this very unfair proposition.  “All right,” he said at last.  

Eggsy grinned.  He settled, warm, against Merlin’s side and held the tablet up for Merlin to look at, bringing up a few status reports.  It was exactly what Merlin had been desperate for just a few moments ago, but he kept getting distracted by Eggsy’s nearness. He was so close, and it felt like he was only easing closer. His arm, initially thrown out over Merlin’s pillow, had crept down to his shoulders. Merlin thought about saying something- _Harry might appreciate a post-mission cuddle, but I do not_ sprang to mind, but did it really need to be said?  Harry and Eggsy were _together_ , after all. 

There was a light in Eggsy’s eyes that suggested he knew what was going through Merlin’s mind, which made Merlin wonder- was the smirk he wore a tease, or a dare?  And if it was a dare, was he daring Merlin to ask him to back off, or to allow it?

Before Merlin could make up his mind, he heard another knock on the door.

This time it _was_ Harry.  Merlin considered asking for help, but judging from the amused look on Harry’s face he wouldn’t give it.  Anyway, what would Merlin say?  _Tell your boyfriend to unhand me?_ It was unlikely to work, since Harry had been trying to bring Merlin around on the subject of physical affection for years. He hadn’t had much success, because Merlin was sure that however close Harry got physically he would still be far away in every sense that mattered.  Not that having Eggsy pressed up against him was much easier; he had known Eggsy for only a fraction of the time he had known Harry, and yet he already...

Harry- silent all this while- approached the bed with the slowness and deliberation of a wild beast on the prowl.  He came to sit on Merlin’s bed too, on his other side but close enough that Eggsy’s fingertips must have been brushing against his neck.  “What are we looking at?” he asked, as if there was- to him- nothing the least bit odd about the situation.

“Status reports,” Eggsy said.  

They couldn’t possibly have sounded more innocent, but there was something on the air- and in the direction Harry’s hand, now, was creeping- that belied it. “I’m not sure this is the best idea,” Merlin said.  They might think he meant the status reports, on the off chance he had read the tension crackling through the room wrong.  He did that sometimes.  

“When has that been a deterrent?”

That was Harry’s voice like a warm breath against his ear, and Eggsy’s smile close enough to kiss.  Merlin had never had the problems some of the Kingsman did, telling the old Galahad from new- but right at the moment it was difficult to determine where one of them ended and the other began.  “Oh,” Merlin said.  He wondered just how many rooms he had read wrong over the years, thinking that neither of them would ever be interested, let alone both.  

He wondered what he could do about it now. 

He suspected that the only reason he hadn’t been ordered not to participate in certain not bed-rest but still bed-related activities was because the doctors had assumed it went without saying.  So he decided not to move- not away, and not toward either. There would be time to think on what this meant- time to talk himself out of doing anything about it, most likely- but for now Merlin could simply enjoy the closeness.

“Can I see that mission dossier for Bors again?” he asked.

Harry reached across him, bringing up the correct file on the tablet while Eggsy held it aloft, still smiling brightly.  

**Author's Note:**

> Come see me on [tumblr](http://potentiality-26.tumblr.com/).


End file.
